How Do I Know Whether My Child is Gifted?

When a parent is first confronted with the idea that his or her child might be gifted, or above average, the first thought is: "What does this mean?" The second is: "So what do I do now?" And the third (for some parents) is: "Oh no! I don't want my kid to be one of those geeks!"

All joking aside, giftedness is a very, very serious issue. Research into giftedness shows that gifted children must have their needs met for proper emotional development. Gifted children who do not have their needs met have higher drug and alcohol abuse rates, and higher suicide rates. But what exactly does "gifted" mean?

The term gifted is a loaded local politics term: most gifted programs are found in white, middle class suburbs, although true giftedness is found equally in every race, ethnic group, every income level, and every section of the country. "Gifted" means more than just above average. Most gifted education researchers consider giftedness to be in those children who have an IQ of 130 or higher. The average IQ is around 100. Researchers break giftedness into approximate categories: a child with an IQ of 130-144 is "moderately gifted," 145-159 is "highly gifted," 160-179 is "exceptionally gifted," and 180+ is "profoundly gifted."

Here is where it gets complicated: a child can have an IQ in these ranges in ONE subject, but not another. So a child who tests at 164 IQ in math may test at 90 in verbal skills. The child needs radically different education in the area of math vs. verbal (Language Arts, writing).

Exceptionally Gifted (EG) and Profoundly Gifted (PG) children are extremely rare. Exceptional giftedness (160-179 IQ) in even one area occurs at a rate of 1 in 100,000 people to 1 in 1 million people. If the average teacher teaches for 30 years, and has 30 students per year, they most likely will NEVER, statistically speaking, have an exceptionall gifted child in their classroom. Profoundly gifted kids are even more rare: 1 in 1 million to 1 in TEN million. So, for instance, if a child scores a 190+ in math on IQ tests, there are only 600 to 6,000 people in the world, right now, with the same math potential.

Talk about being a needle in a haystack.

You might be wondering, then: why are there so many "gifted" kids in upper middle class suburbia today?

True giftedness must be determined by very specific testing. Just because a child reads two or three grades ahead of grade level, or does multiplication in second grade easily, doesn't mean he or she is gifted. True genius (EG or PG level) can only be measured, with confidence, by a trained educational assessment specialist or a neuropsychologist who has received specific training in administering IQ tests and other tests that measure giftedness in children.

However, most "gifted" programs in schools do not properly test children. A "gifted and talented" teacher who has taken eighteen or more credits at the graduate school level in gifted education often serves as the only person who determines which children are gifted in his or her school. In many instances, the tests these teachers offer are not appropriate measures of giftedness. To determine TRUE giftedness a certified tester should give students one or more of the following tests:

* Stanford-Binet (SB-5)
* WISC III or WISC IV
* Woodcock-Johnson (WJ-III)

and base gifted labels on the results.

In addition, testers must consider special needs of students. Some children labeled "special needs" or those in Special education programs possess giftedness, but have learning disabilities or behavioral issues that make testing difficult. A child with Tourette Syndrome, for instance, may find his or her tics and muscle jerking to interfere with timed pattern recognition tests; the child may score in the superior range on one day, but only average or below average on a day when the muscle twitches are excessive. Making accommodations for special needs is crucial before ruling out a gifted diagnosis for a child who shows a high degree of innate intelligence but does not test well.

With this in mind, if--after being administered one of the standard tests above--your child scores moderate, high, exceptional, or profound on any measure, the next step is to find ways to have his or her academic needs met, whether your child is in public school, private school, or homeschooled. It is absolutely unacceptable to force a child to perform at grade level if he or she is gifted; the difference between a 100 IQ (average) and a 130 IQ (gifted) is as large as the difference between a 100 IQ (average) and a 70 IQ (mentally challenged). We would never force children with 100 IQs to do work at the 70 IQ level; why expect the same from children with 130+ IQs?

If schools refuse to be flexible with academic needs of gifted children, some states require that gifted children receive Individual education Plans (IEPs), while others do not. Meeting with the tester to come up wth ideas is one great place to start. In addition, many schools take the average of all IQ areas--this hurts children who are very strong in one area, but very weak in another. Referring back to the earlier example, averaging a 164 IQ in math with a 95 verbal IQ would give that child a 129.5 IQ, leaving him more than 30 points behind in math ability if taught as if he had a 130 math IQ, and hurting him in verbal skills by trying to force him to learn as if he possessed abilities more than 35 points ahead of where he really was. If your child excels in one area, they need to be taught to the level of their ability, not to their average.

If your child has been placed in a gifted program at school without having been properly administered one of the above tests, question the gifted and talented coordinator: why aren't standard, research-based tests being used to determine giftedness? It will do mislabeled children no good to be labeled "gifted" and later learn they are not. At the same time, what if the invalid testing labeled a profoundly gifted child only moderately gifted? The difference between 130 IQ and 190 IQ is enormous; the "gifted" children in a program cannot be treated equally if they posses dramatically different abilities.

In the end, gifted or not, the goal of gifted programs is to help children meet their potential. It is crucial, though, that gifted testing be administered fairl and properly, so that such children receive the help, support, and accommodations they need.